SCOUTING REPORT: Ryan is a dominant player that has the ability
to take over a game whenever he wants to. His skill level and
creativity with the puck are second to none. He has the ability to
thread a pass that not many others could. Ryan is a great skater
and has made many forwards miss on the forecheck leaving them
looking silly. He is dangerous on the rush as his one-on-one skills
are top notch. He is always on the other team’s radar and he plays
on the edge.

your fast, just noticed this today and was going to make a thread. Is he related to nick merkley

Click to expand...

Figure you go 1st in the OHL draft, you deserve a thread. I highly doubt he is a close relative to Nick Merkley, considering they live on opposite sides of the country and Elite prospects usually notes who players relatives are.

Figure you go 1st in the OHL draft, you deserve a thread. I highly doubt he is a close relative to Nick Merkley, considering they live on opposite sides of the country and Elite prospects usually notes who players relatives are.

Click to expand...

ahh thanks. That's true Nick played from the whl and he's going in the ohl, brain fart on my part. Was he more touted than David Levin who went 1st last year.

ahh thanks. That's true Nick played from the whl and he's going in the ohl, brain fart on my part. Was he more touted than David Levin who went 1st last year.

Click to expand...

Ryan actually put up comparable numbers to Chychrun in his pre draft season for the OHL. The thing to keep in mind is that he's also much less physically developed. I can't really comment on Ryan though since I've never seen him play live, but he'd sure have to be something great to be more highly regarded than Levin.

I saw a tweet a couple months ago (So not my own personal scouting opinion) that said the Ryan Merkely was the best player he had seen at this level since Connor McDavid. So I'm excited to see how this guy turns out

Anyone seen him play, how effective is he, is he playing top pairing minutes?

Click to expand...

I've seen him a bit. Amazing skater, is noticeably the smallest guy on the ice at a lot of times. Great vision and a good shot from the point. He seems to have high iq defensively, but some of the Guelph games I've seen the team around him is such a mess its hard to rate anyone's individual defensive ability. His size will stop him from winning a lot of corner battles, so watching how he fills out is important. I'm also watching from TV, so it is sometimes hard to track how good someone is defensively from that situation. From people with live viewings of him I've gotten mixed reviews.

From my viewings (mostly earlier in the year) he was playing top 4 minutes, with significant PP time. So far he's been the most impressive of the 16 years olds in the OHL.

I've seen him a bit. Amazing skater, is noticeably the smallest guy on the ice at a lot of times. Great vision and a good shot from the point. He seems to have high iq defensively, but some of the Guelph games I've seen the team around him is such a mess its hard to rate anyone's individual defensive ability. His size will stop him from winning a lot of corner battles, so watching how he fills out is important. I'm also watching from TV, so it is sometimes hard to track how good someone is defensively from that situation. From people with live viewings of him I've gotten mixed reviews.

From my viewings (mostly earlier in the year) he was playing top 4 minutes, with significant PP time. So far he's been the most impressive of the 16 years olds in the OHL.

Click to expand...

Sounds a little like Ryan Ellis to me at the Junior level. Might be a good comparable for him in the OHL and the NHL (hopefully he develops more there) but even then Ellis is solid.

I think you should work on your reading comprehension as that is quite clearly not what that poster said...

What team is Ellis a 2d on with Subban and Josi in Nashville? Genuine question. Ekholm as well strikes me as a more competent player than Ellis defensively, while putting up similar point totals and playing comparable minutes..

I think you should work on your reading comprehension as that is quite clearly not what that poster said...

What team is Ellis a 2d on with Subban and Josi in Nashville? Genuine question. Ekholm as well strikes me as a more competent player than Ellis defensively, while putting up similar point totals and playing comparable minutes..

Click to expand...

Oh right, I forgot. Malkin is obviously a #2C on Pittsburgh. Great point!

Ellis is maybe the single most underrated player in the league. He's great offensively and great defensively.

Ekholm is also a legit #2, so it's kinda irrelevant if you think Ellis is marginally worse (he isn't).

How does Merkley compare with former Guelph Storm d-man, Drew Doughty?

Click to expand...

There are some definite similarities in vision, passing, and skating. It seems to me (and going from memory of Drew when he was 16) that Merkley is stronger and may have a better shot at this point in time. The kid does not look like a 16 year old on the ice. He makes a few rookie mistakes, but his speed and awareness help him make up for them.

Kids starting to look good, was 1st star in the Guelph game today and has 6 points in his last 3 games including 4 goals. Still not sure what level of NHL prospect he is. Some people see the next Karlsson and others see the next Ryan Murphy.

He is going to be a very interesting kid to follow. His skating, vision and shot are all good to elite, its a question of whether he can round out the question marks such as defensive ability (is his hockey-iq enough to make up for his size) and how much can he fill out.